One of the reasons concept cars are great is because they don't have to be constrained by the realities of everyday driving. They're often built to showcase a specific feature or design language, which can lead to some very unusual-looking creations. Some are beautiful, some are hideous, and some leave car fans scratching their heads thinking, "who thought that was a good idea?"
These concept cars all share one thing in common: they'd be no good to daily drive. They all lack at least one feature that most drivers take for granted, such as being able to see or get in and out of their car. As fascinating as they might be from a design perspective, it'd be pretty horrible to daily drive one of these prototype machines.
8 Lancia Siblio Bertone
It's pretty hideous as far as concept cars go, but the Lancia Siblio Bertone is also practically useless too. The dirty-looking brown paint job seems to extend into all of the window panes, making the actual space the driver could see out of dangerously tiny.
For some unknown reason there's also a racing-style window hole each side of the car, meaning drivers might end up getting rained and snowed on. To top things off, there's no back window and only one side mirror, meaning there'd be almost no way to see anything behind the car.
7 DS X-E Tense
It's certainly a visually striking concept, with asymmetric lines and a distorted frame. The main daily driving problem with the DS X-E Tense is the lack of a roof for the driver when the passenger gets one.
Having to sit in the driver's seat in the rain and wind while their passenger is dry is not something any car buyer wants. It doesn't even look comfortable, with a tight racing-style cockpit that would surely end up painful for the driver on long road trips.
6 Mercedes-Benz F300 LifeJet
This concept was an attempt by Mercedes to combine the motorcycle and the car into one vehicle. It's a trick that's been attempted before by manufacturers and the results have always been a bit rubbish. The F300 LifeJet is no different, as it offers almost none of the practicalities of a car and lacks the compact size of a bike.
The extreme body roll might be a fun gimmick for press shots, but in the real world it would become infuriating very quickly, especially if the driver wanted a coffee. Spillages aside, it also doesn't seem like there's any easy way for the back passenger to get in and out of the car. The bodywork comes up too high for them to just jump in and there's no obvious door. It's just another oversight on this weird and silly hybrid.
5 Phantom Corsair
Inward-facing headlights are never a good idea on any car, because it makes it look cross-eyed. With the Phantom Corsair, that's the least of its worries. The main issue with the car is its windows, or lack thereof.
The driver gets two slits to look out of at the front of the vehicle, but they're positioned so that there's barely any visibility over the huge front hood. The rear of the car has a similar issue, except the windows are this time vertical. It's all very well building a grand, swooping land yacht. But, when the driver can't see and ends up hitting the nearest barrier, they won't be very impressed.
4 Renault Trezor
The Renault Trezor is from some angles actually a pretty good-looking car. Its distinctive red windows look like something that might be found on a Hot Wheels car, and that leads to daily driving problem number one. Drivers need to be able to see colors, as things like traffic lights and car reverse lights rely on it.
A red windshield will make that job a lot trickier for the driver. The other main issue with the Trezor is getting in and out of it. There's no doors, so to get out a driver needs to lift up the whole front section of the car. As well as being awkward to squeeze out of, it means in places like underground car parks with low roofs, they might end up trapped inside their car.
3 BMW Vision Next 100
As its name suggests, the Vision Next 100 is BMW's attempt at visualizing the technologies of the future. The most weird-looking part of the car is the wheels, which are hidden by body panels that are supposed to turn in line with the tires. It's a cool-looking feature but one that would probably stop working within a few days of real-world use.
Most roads outside cities have some amount of gravel and dust, which would cause havoc on the intricate layers of flexible paneling. If only one stone chip got stuck inside one of the hundreds of joints, it could jam the system which could stop the car from turning properly. It's a fun design study, but it's too delicate to work anywhere other than a concept car.
2 Venturi Astrolab
Venturi's Astrolab is a prototype solar electric car, and in order to make enough power to propel itself, the whole thing needs to be covered in solar panels. The catch is that if those panels are scratched then the whole system becomes less effective.
Given how much wear and tear the average car's paintwork has to withstand, it's almost inconceivable that this solar panel would last anything more than a few thousand miles without starting to get damaged by a flying piece of gravel or dirt. The other issue is that since the panels are so reflective, on the brightest days the driver might end up blinded.
1 Lamborghini Terzio Millennio
It's an undeniably cool-looking piece of machinery, and it's futuristic too with its orange-spoke wheels and electric drivetrain. The problem with the Terzio Millennio is that it sits less than an inch off the ground.
It's a problem that owners of stanced cars have had to contend with for decades, but no-one's lauding those cars for their practicality. Even with adjustable suspension, it's unlikely that the car would be able to raise itself up enough to deal with even the lowest of speed bumps. Still, in this case it's a good enough piece of eye candy that most owners would probably just sit and look at it anyway.